Tonight's Show Suggestions

Jeff Lorber plays Dimitriou's again tonight; there's also Police Teeth's CD release at the Sunset, if you're looking for some rock and roll in Ballard. It starts at 10 p.m. and costs $7.

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Kinski, AFCGT, Treetarantula at the Comet Tavern, 9 p.m., $7

When you write about music in Seattle, Chris Martin is one of the best dudes to run into at shows. With his arms crossed and beer-in-hand, Martin will happily lean over and tell you everything he knows about whatever band happens to be onstage at the time, what new band in town is worth checking out, and what records he purchased recently. But his uber-music fan tangents often deflect attention away from his own great band, Kinski.

An instrumental four-piece, Kinski's mission is to marry pop and hard-rock, and emotion and experimentalism, but forever divorce repetition from boredom. One of the few bands that could play a riff over and over, Kinski deliver with that 70s hard-rock thrust, but allow it all to breathe by opening their songs up to psychedelic explorations. As they pummel their Sabbath-esque riffs with a machine-like intensity, the natural audience reaction is to bob heads and curl lips into extreme guitar-face. But when you least expect it, Martin & Co. switch gears on you by diffusing the air with hazy space-ambience. BRIAN BARR

Blue Horns, Little Penguins, Altspeak at Mars Bar, 9 p.m., $6

When Blue Horns first appeared on the Portland scene more than a year ago, the band's songs were still rough around the edges. To some extent, that roughness was part of Blue Horns' aesthetic: Colin Howard plays jangly guitar riffs with a garage-meets-southern rock tinge, while guitarist and vocalist Brian Park shouts energetic "1-2-3s" between crooning his warbly, poppy lyrics. But sometimes, that lack of polish was too obvious, overshadowing the talent behind Blue Horns' music. A lot can change in a year, and the pop quartet has polished and tightened its sound. On songs like "Shotgun Wedding," Howard's jangle complements the rhythm of the drums and bass, creating a real, foot-stomping beat. Park's warble is clearer; he now channels David Bowie and Iggy Pop, making the band's lyrics -- such as "Asking the questions/That I want to hear/The truth is too hard" from "Let's Go Hunting" -- actually discernible. Now the band's roughness is clearly cultivated, rather than accidental. Blue Horns has the punk aesthetic of 1970s pioneers Television, but the mass appeal of Bowie. What was once just a Portland band with promise is on its way to gaining a reputation in the Northwest scene.